First Data Corp. said Tuesday that it is rolling out a mobile coupon program for merchants called mVoucher that uses 2-D bar codes and text messages.
The Atlanta payments processor, which made the announcement at the International CTIA Wireless convention in Orlando, Fla., said the program builds on its efforts to strengthen its contactless payments strategy.
It provides "the ability for a consumer to experience that connected commerce kind of thing," said Dom Morea, First Data's head of advanced solutions and innovation. "With a mobile voucher a merchant can deliver value, which a consumer can redeem at a point of sale."
Several national retailers, including fast-food restaurants, have signed on to use the technology, Morea said. Merchants also can ask their customers to register to receive coupons through e-mail or text message. The user presents a 16-digit code or scans a bar code at a retailer's point of sale terminal to redeem an offer. The system also includes smartphone apps that check gift card balances and look for additional loyalty rewards. The mVoucher technology can be used to refill a virtual reloadable account, Morea said.
First Data's announcement comes on the heels of other successful mobile payment applications that use digital bar codes, such as Starbucks Corp.'s smartphone app. With software from the mobile banking vendor mFoundry Inc., users can pay for purchases by generating a bar code on a mobile phone. The customer presents the phone for scanning, which deducts funds from a Starbucks prepaid card account.
Once near-field communication chips, which allow devices to transmit data to each other, become embedded in cell phones it will only bolster mVoucher's features, Morea said.
"The timing of this mobile voucher capability is not by mistake," he said. "It's that whole intersection of NFC and mobile wallets, which can contain different cards, and the fact that vouchers really represent infrastructure and deliver a range of [payment] types."
In September, First Data, a unit of the private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., announced a partnership with SK C&C USA, part of SK C&C Co. Ltd. in South Korea, to develop technology that First Data's bank clients can use to issue virtual cards that consumers can download to their mobile phones.
